(cE

greatest discontent, Notwithstanding the fact that there is still open water between Geergetown, Murray Harbor, or Souris, and Cape Bear; notwithstunding the fact that a properly-coastructed steamer could

Che Examiner. - Cuatatadaine, Dee. 13, 187

5, now enter any of our harbors; notwith— standing the fact that, with the exceptios of two or three boisterous days, the wea- death stilled | thor has not been sueh as to prevent a

OBITUARY.

On Sunday evening last, the voiee of the preacher in St. Paul’s | ood, strong steamer from crossing Church, Charlottetown. Cranres DES~ | jive had no communication—other than Brisay, Esq.,—in the absence of the i telegraphic communication — with the Rev. D. FitzGerald, who is still confined | Qainland for a fortnight. Nor is it likely to his house—was engaged in reading a} an attempt will be made to maintain the sermon to the congregation assembled promised steam communication this wia- He had announced the text, ‘ Who shall ger, + Mr. Sewell has backed down abide the day of his coming?" and had | this is the excuse offered by the apologists read a few sentences, —when, suddenly, he jof the Government. But is ita sufficient stopped, fumbled with the leaves before j excuse? No. With the resources it has him, and sank slowly to his seat. Messrs. | gt its command, the McKenzie Adminis. Fenton T. Newbery and G. C. Cunning~ | gration—if they desired to keep faith ham instantly went to his assistance, and | yieth the Island—could have secured a ifted him to the Chancel floor. was a slight movement of hia limbs, ®) the time Mr. Sewell refused to sign the hoarse rattle or two in his throat—snd all | sontract. But the steamer has not been was still. He was dead. secured; and the Dominion Government

During the day he had been in his | has been guilty of a flagrant and inexcus

”

There | winter steamer twenty-four hours from

usual health—not very good of late—and able violation of the terms under which

° ; rd . } : i } in his usual happy ar 1 contented mood i the people of this Island were induced to

commencement of the

>the Church Ward-

Wy vl evik

vice he remarked t

us to the join the coufederated provinees.

mT

eas that they might choose the two first |

} ago—

he should have his choice of | washed away at St. Peter’s Bay.

is, but This is the hymn he selected :—

hymt lt was

last

i o~ (a peculiarly uofortuoate circumstance ; ] ; ‘ing! { . . . a Cuildren of the heavenly King! | for it occurred just at the time the people As ye journey, sweetly sing: — | Sing your Saviour s worthy praise, } : Glorious in His works and ways!

‘most neeied railway communication, Steps towards restoring it should instantly ‘have been taken. After the line had been restored, it would have been time ‘enough te consider the expediency of | moving the track or building a timber ‘breatwork. But three precious weeks | were frittered away in surveys, and cer- respondence, aod haggling with land- owners, before it was decided to restore the eriginal line. On Tuesday last the work of restoration was commeneed. Five or six men were engaged at picking and

Ye are travelling home to God, In the way the fathers trod; They are happy now, and ye Soon their happiness shall see.

Fear not, bretheren! joyful stand On the borders of your land; Jesus Christ, God's only Son, Bids you undismay'd go on.

Lord, obedient we will go, Gladly leaving all below; Only thou our leader be,

And we still will follow Thee.

Hymns of glory and of praise, Father, unto Thee we raise; __ Praise to Thee, O “hrist, our King

shovelling clay, rozen to the depth of And the Holy Ghost, we sing

a nearly a foot. Mr. DesBrisay was the only remaining |

sou of the Rev. Theophilus Desbrisay -~ | On Theredey, devep-Gve see-wee-en~ the first Episcopal Clergyman who came

i : |ployed. By that time nearly a third of to this Island. He was born in the OT | es ee ain, Ob Friday sad 1799 and was admitted to the Bar ' | Siturday there were between fifty and 1836. For very many years he was Clerk duty Wheres ; snd 6 es di Cbatieonl of the Executive Cosnell and ne attended “that if the weather continues fine, trains to the duties of his office till the day pre- ab Ge be "> Shia mn cen employed as soon as

oan era “— 7 ht IE ‘the storm «bated, and while the ground throughout -bis career he commanded the | was soft the line might have been restored

respect and confidence of each succeeding | a meoth earlier, and the people of the

No man in the city had a ; a ai ; : exstern sections of King’s County might '

lirge inder heart; no man in the city , a —, ? ee r Y | aot have been subjected te a loss which it was more sincerely beloved igi . . t is impossible to estimate,

ber of laborers was increased to tweive,

_will crose to-morrow evening.

He was not possessed | huodred meo b dred me

Government.

Many peor |

'

persons will embalm his memory with - -_-

PARTIAL ELECTIONS.

their gratitude; many afflicted and sor- rowing ones will cherish the remember. ance of his kindly, comforting words.

NomINaTION of candidates to fill va- cant seats in the local Heuse of Assembly,

TRIUMPH OF MISMANAGEMENT

: + 1 ; own on Thursday last. Tae line of railway has been broken " wo on Thursday last

we!)

On the 11th November last—a month a thousand yards of railway were |

On Wednesday, the num-

took plice at Charlottetown and George- |

ever a mooth. commupieation between the peop!s liviag Peter’

St. Luwrence auc

east and west of St a for mor

than a week The Princess of Wales ceased running » fort

.

i

| without opposition.

night ago. From that time till thia' morning no foreign miii has been received

here. For purposes of communication

with Charlottetown and the rest of the Island, the inhabitants of all thet part of the Province East of St. Peter's wight as well have lived in California: and for

at large, the people of thie I-land might

as well have resided in Frunee.

is SO exasperated with this extraordinary

of affairs—so incensed with the

tat Brice

railway and postal authorities -- that he |

ae lele awat

will impatiently glance over an ar In which its causes are calmly, reasonably and impirtialy discussed.

The primary eause is certainly the weather. If we were only blessed with continual summer, daily rail and postal communication would, we doubt not, have been kept ap. But winter is here ~ aud the railway and postal authorities are dumbfounded by its severity.

We all know that assoon as possible, atter the line of railway was broken, a eourier was engaged to carry miils to and from Souris and St. Peter’s. For sixor seven successive days that courier regular- ly left Souris iu the morning, travelled through to St. Peter's and returned to Souris in the evening—without a mail.

Owing to this rather remarkable cireum

stance many persons andoubted'y suffered |

great disappointment and loss, Souris is a distributing office, andthe whole pop ulation east of Bay Fortune —probably 10,000 persons—reeeive their mail matter through it. If the mail does not reach Souris it cannot reach East Point or any of the offices en route. Consequently, every man, woman or child, residing

between Bay Fortuce and Eaat Poivty |

who went to the Vost Office during the week the mails were delayed, went for nothing. If we reflect that many have to travel six and seven miles in going to and coming from the Post Office, we may be able to torn an estimate of the Jubor and suffering—apart from the dissapoint ment and loss—occasioned by the uon arrival of the mails at Souris But, so far as we can learn, no official in purticu lar can be justly blaimed.

The

regularly seut from the Charlottetown

mils

performed his duty

Post Office; and if they remained in w |

heap at Mount Stewart, ueither the Post

Office Inspector nor the Postmaster of |

Charlottetown can be blamed.

There was no post+] |

, secouded by David Exgan, interchange of news with the Dominion | by Donald MeLauchlin, E-q., and seevnd- We | trust that no reader of the EXAMINER!

Kings County, Liwreace Kiekham was

The courier i

were

In fect,

It wis supposed that a gentleman, so |

popalar and 30 cepeble as the Hon. F. Kelly. would have been returned, for the one remaloing session of t5 Legislature, |

Bat it is pot so to be. A certsin Mr. Bambrieck—a young man, we believe—has hod the temerity to take the field aguiust a veteran, who, the Herald admits, “has played his cards with remarkable skill.” Mr. Kelly was proposed by Owen + onnolly, E-q., and Exq. The

nomination of Mr. Bsmbrick was proposed

ed by M Campbell, Esq.

To represent the First Discrict of proposed by ( has. Me chea, eq ‘ and

second: d br A. W Lauchian McDonald wis proposed by D

Uwen, Esq. ; and

McRae and seconded by Louis Boucette,

i squires. Of the two candidates, Mr.

Kickham should, we think, have the pre- |

The district is in immediate need of special] grauts for public works.

Mr. MeDona‘d, being « declared opponent

' ference.

of the Loc:! Governmest, would, natural- ly, have littie power to obtain these ‘grants. Whereas, Mr. Kiekhum—who

’

‘adopts the independent ticket—looks to | |

| the interest ot his district first, and makes | has purty predilections a secondary con- sideration, would be more likely to suc ceed in obtaining governmental favors

\ CAMPBELL'S COVE BREAK- | WATER.”

small fishing vessels which frequent the north shore of this Island, near the East Point, is very much needed. By the covstruction ot a bre-kwater ut Camp- bell’s ‘ ove, the necessary shelter will, it is thought by many experienced men, be afforded In the Cove, there is about sixteen feet of water at ordinary high tide; and if the proposed breakwater were built, hundreds of small vessels could easily enter it and ride out a gale | in perfeet safety. The project has been ‘betore the public fur the past thirty _yeurs. The only doubt as to its feasibil- ity was the alleged impossibility of con. | structing a breastwork of sufficient strength to withstand the force of the In order to test the correctness or inecorrectness of the allegation, the Government, of which Hon J C Pope wai ender, granted « sam of money; and

| Wavee.

‘three hundred feet of the breastwork were | built in 1872. Since then, some of the most terrible storms known to the history ‘of the province have expended their fury it Lust month the tid:

| rose higher than at any time since 1839.

upon in vain.

they supposed the Sourts muil was going | But stili so much of the brea-twork as

all right, until a Sourian rushed into the| has beeo built remxina intact.

The in-

ofiee in a white heat ‘to kuow the! correctness of the * iinpossibilite theory”

reason why.’’

The Postmaster at Souris | has been established

One-third of the

had, it appears, no means of communi~| work has been done; and it should, we

eation with Charlottetown. The railway ‘think, be finished

It it is not, the

authorities, probably, did not thiuk it »| money already expended will be thrown part of their duty to tell the Post Office | away; if it is, a great boon will be given authorities that the muils were sccumulutg! a class of men who deserve encourage-

ing at Mount Stewart.

‘ten thousand | ment.

The developmeut of our fisheries

people have suffered through gross mise isa very important mvtter; 1nd anything,

management and no official blundered !! ! Surely this is a triusoph for mismanage-

ment.

But greater triumphs still remain to be

> ; Yan . > . . . } told. Previous to ‘\onfederaaion, the | side, during a heavy n rtherly gale, is a

‘the toil and daager of our fishermen, should be accomplished. To round the | Kast Point, or make harbor on the north

Domision Government bouad itselt by «| perilous undertaking. But to get into

solema compect to mMuibtain stesm com- munication between this Island and the

maioland during wivter. This is the | menber for the First Distriet of King

Campbell’s Vove is at all times compar. atively easy. We hope the newly-clected

j | '

’ s

third winter since Confederation was con. County will not forget Campbell’s Cove summated, and this is the winter of our| Breakwater.

A piace of refuge for the fleet of

mene 3 WINTER MAIL A RRANGCMENT.

Have we a winter mail arrangement ? This question, we can well imagine, is now prominent in the thoughts of =~ persons. In answer to it, we submit the following particulars, obtained by courtesy of the Deputy Post Office Inspector, a W McLeod, Esq.

Last sutumn, Messrs. Irving & Mut

tart entered into a eontract to despatch

when ind

ye ICbie ible to from Cape Traverse and to and from Cupe Traverse and Summer

side, and to und from Cape Traverse ind

mails daily Charlottetown ;

Cape Tormeptine. The foreign mails aro to be made up in Charlottetown every | evening o’ clock,

Cape Traverse during the

at nine to be taken to me nicht, and to be forwarded across the Straits the following day. Mails from abroad are to

be in Charlottetown four hours, and in | Reemaasbiie two anda half hours, after

The

postal authorities can order mails to Sum-

ansiv at Cape Traverse, loeal |

ELE DEALER gg TMT SR

| fine intellect ffir play, he would, as a tras | ‘Lord of the Isles,’ his ‘Marmion,’ his |

gedian, have proved himself a formidable rival even to the author of Macbeth. Of Marlow’'s idea than is containe Charles Lamb, who says ‘the reluctant pangs of abdicating royalty in Kogland, furs

Oo

nished hints on which Shakespeare scarce |:

improved in his Richard IL; and the death Marlow’s King, moves pity and terror, beyond any scene, ancient or modern, with which | ama prin te is! Pemetelete written with such terrible power, that the in the reader's veins And yet there is a It.

cene of

blood almost eurdies is he £Oes on,

faacination about cannot lay it elf away, you are as i finished,

trauge (nee you begin

Hall Speli-«

Lhe ganius ol M irlowe

Edward I[., | cannot give a better | lin the quotation from |

you | aside, you cannot tear yours | bound, tiil it is | the wierd |

bent of his mind, the infidel nature of his |

lifeare well given in the words of Hazlet

‘* There 13 a lust ot power, a hunger and thirst after unrightegnsnes imagination, ubheapawed by anything but its own energies, 4Ms thoughts burn within him likea furnace with b throwing out black smoke and mist hide the dawn of genius, or, like a poison. ous mineral, corrode the heart. Faustus himself is a This character may be considered as a per | sonification of the pride of will and eager-

| ness of curiosity, sablimed beyond the reach

| merside by train if the roads from Char-

lottetown to Cape Traverse are impassable.

Such, in brief, is our winter mail ar- } rangement.

—_— +

|GREAT EPOCHS IN’ ENGEISH LIT- | “* ?eEIM .

ERATURE AND THEIR CAUS

Paper read on Triday evening last, before the Charlottetown Debating Ciab, by A. B. Warburton, B. A., Vice President. A

|}number of ladies graced the occasion by | their presence in commending the essay to our readers,

| There are four epochs in English Litera-

| ture distinguished above others by their ins |

tellectual greatness. There are the Chan- the reign of Edward I[1,, and that of Rich- ard Il; the Shakespearean period, which shed such a radiance over the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. In the genius of their writers, though not in their number, these are superior t) those that follow them. The third is the era of Swift, Addison, Prior, and Pope, or during the reign of Anne. The fourth I place in the early part of the | present century, and ts rendered illustrious | by such names as Wordsworth, Scott, Byron, | Shelley, Keats, Moore, and a host of others The Chaucerian period is chiefly distin~ | guished by the matchless writings of Chauce- er himself He, the father of English

Poetry, was trained up in the camp and Court of Edward III., and was often em- ployed on diplomatic services of vast im~ portance. The time was one when the romantic gallantry of the Anglo-Norman knighthood was carried to its highest pitch It was the era of chivalry, and Chaucer was deeply imbued with the spirit of his age. His great work,or rather coliection of works, is the Canterbury Tales,a number of stories told by the pilgrims to Canterbury, to the Shrine of Thomas a Becket. Every rank in life furnishes its pilgrim. There is an old knight, just returned from foreign service who

‘_Fro the time that he firste bega To riden out, he loved chivalrie.”, He had fought under the banner of the Cross, against the heathen in Africa, in Spain, in Armenia, in Turkey, and

Q,

“ At mortal batailles, had he been fifteen, Aud foughten for our faith at Tramissene, la listes thries, and ay, slain his foe.”

His experience in war, had rendered him perfectly indifferent to his personal appear- | ance, for though

eH $3 bors Was g d, } > a i D v | Of fustain he wered a g Ali besmotred.”’

He is altogether a good representative of the old feudal aristocracy. With him there is his son, a coxcomb of the day. There are also nuns,and clergymen, a physician, and a sergeant learned in the law, both of ; Whom sre credited with many of the pecu- j liarities still commonly ascrived to their profession il decendants. The Knight's fale. is firsttold in simple and beautiful language, just the story we would expect to have from the lips of one of King Edward’s veterans. It recites the mournful story of the Greeks, Arcite, and Polemon, embel- ished with the extravagant chivalry of the Middie Ages. The other stories follow in rapid succession, and are each in keeping with the character of its supposed uarrator. But the time at my disposal prevents my lingering over them. Suilice it to say, that all are stamped with the genius of the writer, though some are clothed in language unworthy of his character.

Chaucer, though the brightest, was by no means the Only luminary of this period.

YTbere were many others, amongst whom | i would mention Gower called by Chaucer the Moral Gower, the author of Confessio | Amantis; or, the Lover's Confession, a | work that would lead us to suppose that | the lovers of the fifteenth cent iry were j}much more communicative then their brethern of the nineceenth. [ can no

Scottish

more than name the great Poets Wyntoun, Barbour,and Blind Harry. Among

| prose arthors were John Wycelitle, the weil known theological writer, and Mandeville,

who after thirty-four years wanderings in Eastern lands, wrote a book on his adven~ not escape the fate common _ to sub- veracity much questioned. His works af. ford curious instanggs of the credulity of his time, when he speaks of birds of Madax gascar, which carried eiephants through the air, and other tales equally absurd.

Il, The second great epoch is much better known than the first. It is by far

ture. ‘The great writers in every depart. ment ure here to be found in numbers. This is the great dramatic era, It was also the age of original and profound thinkers, In Francis Bacon, it produced, probably,

man of such varied and genius, that some do not hesitate to ascribe even the works of Shikespeare to his pen. In poetry, apart from the drama, the Elizabethian period was graced above all @thers with the name of Edmund Spencer, the poet’s poet, the only fault in whose poetry is it’s continual sweetness. Others are Sir Philip Sidney, brave soldier

are numerous, among whom I can only mention the names of Sir Thomas Moore, Lord Herbert, Lord Bacon and Sir Walter

pen and the sword, a brave and skilfal sailor and a statesmanlike councillor. Pamphleteers and controversialists were numerous, yet great as this period was in poetry, philosophy and history, the full intellectual strength of the age is not to be found in these. The drama, having

piay and miracle, having discarded the stiff

ready formed for the hands of it’s mastets. the popularity it possessed, and the vast

grossed the great poetical genius of the lund. The dranaatic writings of this time not only rise superior to those of every

exce! those of all other countries and of any age. The writers of the Greek drama, long heid up as a models, celebrated—and justly celebrated—for the beauty of their language, for their vigor and grasp of thought, and by the originality of their genius, are forgotten when the name of Shakespeare is heard,

of other writers : — “Like signiors aad rich burgers of the flood, Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea Do overpeer the pethy traftickers,” that our eyes, dazzled with his brilliancy; | do not recognise the beauties of his con- | tempories. Yet these were no common /mev. In another country or at any other

| as though the genius of the drama were in | them personified. Of these, passing over | the names of Sackville, of John Lilly, of | Peele, of Greene and many more,—not because they are unworthy to be remember- ed—but because the time at my disposal is short,I would mention Marlowe, the author ot Edward I, Dr. Faustus and other splen-~ did plays.

in tragedy, Marlowe undoubtedly came nearer Shakespeare, than any other writer,

@ was cut off in early manhood, in a/| garb.

drunken brawl; but had he lived til] his powers were matured, or had he given his

cerian period, during the latter portion of

thrown off the cumbrous forms of moral | 7 ; | its ravages destroyed his brain.

We have much pleasure | |

tures, and what he had seen, and who did |

sequent writers of travels, of having his |

the finest of all periods ‘n English Litera |

the greatest philosopher who ever lived; a far-reaching |

clever statesman and sweet poet; Fairfax, | Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh. Historians |

Raleigh. Raleigh equilly at home with the |

artificial rules of the classic stage, was now |

| equal of Swift in wit or ridicule, and fully influence it exercised, attracted and eng |

other period in tnglish history, but also |

Nor is Shakespeare | the only great dramatist of this period. |

His inspired thoughts so tower above those | passes that we do not derive pleasure from

their works, At every public reading they | We have—in a time of domestic | Shakespearean epoch, | ment.

of fear and remorse. ”

whose than

Phen we have * rare Ben Jonson, writings are probably better known

|! and austere; his heroine soft and mild; or

,® glow of the}

rude sketch, but a gigantic one. |

those of any other of Shakespeare’s contem- | poraries. {tle was a man of ponderous and clumsy, yet lofty venius. He is the founder | | of the regular or clas school of English

medy. Ol his numerous pl ys the best

re Epicine or the Silent Woman, and the Alchemist. Every man in his Humor, is one of his best kuown works, and contains the celebrated character, Captain Bobadill, Jonson was a pedantic scholar, In all his writings his mind ems oppressed by the weight of his knowledge, yet unable

to shake oif the incubus, His learning was too heavy and cumbrous for him, he ap- | pears to stagger under its weight.

| Next we have Beaumont and Fletcher, famous for theif literary partnership —most of their plays, being joint productions. They are distinguished for their luxuriant imagination, ever running to waste, and by the graceful beauty of their language. In them, to again quote Hazlet, we find all the prodigiality of youth, the confidence inspir~ ed by success, an enthusiasm bordering on

crering fl imes, or } _ i

that | ; a great epochs—to paths which, though less

extravagence, ricliness running riot, beauty |

dissolving in its own sweetness, jects are touched upon by them

All sub. ‘Though,

, tainly to Marlow or Webster in Tragedy, they altogether make the nearest approach to Shakespeare.

Then comes ‘noble minded’ John Webster, of whose life, little is known. The cast of his genius was gloomy and wierd. Of his extant dramas, Vis//oria White devil, and the Duchess of Malfi are the best. Webster, in the words of one of our English writers, delights “ to suggest horrible imaginings to adorne his senti- ments with some image of tender and atvful beauty,” be given of the dark and morbid bent,

( oromb ta

the gloomy power of Webster's genius than |

| skill and valour of Bruce against the veter- or the | ! _ dence, by removing Edward, gave Scotland

No better illustration can |

in the words of Charles Lamb, speaking of |

the Duchess of Ma/fi, “who,” he says, ** has lived among horrers till she has become |‘natiye and endotvéd into that element.’ She speaks the ,dialect of dispair tongue has a snat¢h of Tartarus and

j the | souls of hell,

to touch a soul ‘to the quick, to lay upon fear as much as it can bear, to wean and | ; weary a life till it is ready to drop, and |

then to step in with mortal instruments to take its last forfeits; this only a Webster ean do,”

Of Marston and Haywood, of Ford and

Massinger, I can do no more than mention |

the names.

] ine

I have now given a sketch, brief and im, perfect though it be, of this epoch, but ere passing to the next, I wish, for a moment, to call your attention to a peculiarity of the English Dramatists not often noticed. It is this —-The dramatists of the Elizabethan

eriod are the only writers, of England o1 ny other country, who habitually repre- nt the various forms of mental disease

5

her |

| tory. | grace seemed approaching its climax.

| when his wretched life was brought to its

| swayed a sceptre.

|ernment at home and of brilliant victory

There is something awful about distempers |

of the mind that possessed wonderful at- traction tor their tragic muse. Not only do they delineate lunacy in all stages, but they are true to nature In doing so. Other writers have attempted to describe madness but not with like sueecess. In the Elizabeth. an drama, you see its beginning, you follow it from stage to stage, till it reaches its chamax. Thera is nothing unnatural about it, each phase in its progress is but the fore-runner of what follows. Shakes- peare, especially, takes delight in grappling with and describing this most difficuit of all characters. You find itin Lady MacBeth. MacBeth, himself, in the scene possesed with something very much aisin

is

closing

to a ‘*mind deceased,.’’ So it 1s in Hamlet. in Othello and others, Ir: the Merchant of Venice it takes the fourm of melans choly and Antonio is oppressed with deep sadness, though, in sooth, he knows not

hy he is so sad

[{1. Passing by the sublime works of

Iton e come to the third epoch, or the reign of Anne. ‘This period has no author who can take rank with such men as Chaucer, Spencer Shakespeare, or Milton, but it produced a number of writers dis-

tsnguished by the polish of their style, the graceful smoothness of their diction, by their wit and humour and _ by their cutting satire.

Foremost amongst ‘he poets of this time Pope, a treacherous friend and an implacable foe, a) master of satire but a monster in its exercise. Congreve, Van- bugh and Farquhar held the first place amongst dramatists, men whose sparkling wit and humor -haveé-been rivalled by Sheri dan alone,yet the beauty of wnose thoughts is debased by the coarse garb of obsenity | in which they are. robed- | Remarkable as this age is for its poets or dramatists, it is still more noted for its satirists. Milton had composed his last great work. He had passed from a life that had long been darkened to a world, on | whose splendor his mental vision had been | ever fixed ; the busy fertile brain of Dry |

| stands

| this period was well begun. | satirical Composition were now in yogue. | First amongst these writers were Swift and | Addison, the latterunmatched as an essay- ist. the former terrible for his biting sarcasm and fierce invective ; both equally masters | of ridicule, though ridicule ot very different kinds. Swift, savage and inhuman in his | satire, & good hater, seemed to delight | |in inflicting pain for the sake of the | pangs it caused. Yet, little though we | find to love in the nature of this man, we | | are constrained to pity, when we think of | him spending his wretched, disappointed, | | existence in the horrible ever-impending | dread of that maladay which ev ntually | laid his fine intellect lew.. .Though we can searce pardon the cruelty of! his thoughts, we should, m merey, suppose that the fell disease which rendered his mind a blank, and wrapt his closing years in dark and awful silence, had corroded his heart, ere

Of a far different character was Addison. He was genial in his satire, and though the

conscious of his powers, he was generous in his strength,—though his shafts were shot | with a sure hand, they did not rankle in the wounds they made,

Such were the men of the third epoch in | English Literature—none of them authors | of soaring genius, yet all good and polished writers.

1V. We now come to the last great | epoch, the early part of the present cens tury. Of this period we ail, probably, know more than we do of any other. The writers of this time are as familiar to our ears as household words. Scarcely a day

contribute the bulk of the entertains

Their range is very wide. Their

| songs are the best known and most beauti- ful we have; their longer minstrelsy is

| in reason, which ean be done to leases time, they would have been looked upon |

familiar toall. Its novelists afford amuses | abundant materials were garnered up for

|

meyt and instruction to the present as to the past generation; its historians and scholars hold the highest rank. The names of the writers of this era are legion. I ean only mention a few. This was the period of Hallam and Lingard ameng historians ; of Scott and Carleton among novelists, of Crabbe, Wordsworth. Coleridge, Scott, Shel

ly, Byron and Moore among poets. It was a time peculiarly bylliant in poetry. |

Crabbe broke through the artific al rules of the previous generation, Wordsworth— profound in his simplicity—clothed the every-day objects of English life in splendid | Scott, deeply imbued with the | chivalry of the Middle Ages, was sending | forth his ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel,’ his |

| great literary period that was now dawn.

| to the peaceful pursuits of literature, | an ineXxhaustable store of material was now

den was stilled in its last long sleep, ere | to the renewal of their early deeds, than Essays and | that the | and battle, of romantic love, and knightly | gallantry, sshould be celebrated and pers

| Chaucer was like a genial day in an inglish | spring, when a brilliant sun enlivens the

| anc

_ World caused men’s ideas to expand, then

toucl L | jection, perhaps inferior to Jonson in Comedy, cers |

a , Bannockburn quickly proved how unfit he la move a horror skilfully, |

novels, ia a long and brilliant series to en- trance a delighted world.

Coleridge, a slave to opium, wasting in idleness the ‘prime and manhood ’ of his noble intellect, was, by fits and starts, siving to the world his beautiful fragments. There is a charm, a fascination, about the of the ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ that never wears out. His poetry is ‘of the imagination all compact.’ Of him | it might well be said : —

author

“ The poet’s eye, in a fine freazy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unkuown, the poet's pen | furas them to shapex, and gives to airy | nothiag | A local habitation and a name.’ | i

Ot Byron, ever describing his hero fierce

Moore, the sweet poet of Ireland, it is needless for me to speak. detained yon on ground that is well-worn may to interest. I will now hasten to the causes that produced those

I have already |

Cease

trodden, | hope will be more entertaining. The country, during the four periods of which I have spoken, was in a state of com- parative tranquility. The civil broils of proceeding times were at an end, the na- tion was united in itself. I no not say there were no foreign wars, for this would be ins correct ; but such wars as were being waged did not produce any feeling of insecurity at home. The times which respectively pro- ceded these four periods, were very difter- ent. Probably the four stormiest ages in English history, were those which went be- fore the greatest literary epochs. It is in those troublous and warlike times that I seek the causes of literary greatness, Preceding the “Chaucerian period, we have the reigns of Edward 1, Edward II, and Edward III, reigns which covered some of the most glorious, as also, some of the most wretched pages in English history. lhe restless spirit of the Middle Ages, which rendered it possible for Peter the Hermit and others as zealous as himself, to hurl the chivalry of the Nest, crusade after crusade, against the Paynim masters of the {lolySepulchre, had not yet died out. Butits course had been turned into other channels. Edward I, as wise a monarch as ever sat on the throne of England, soon saw the folly of wasting English blood and treasure in barren expeditions to Palestine. He form- ed his comprehensive designs for uniting the whole of Britain under one crown. Rush- ing on the Welsh he reduced them to sub- He next turned his arms against Scotland, and there victory was still his at- tendant. Vain was the might of Wallace against so terrible a foe. The prowess of the Scottish Chieftain might gain victories over Edward’s generals, but Edward himself was invincible. Vain, also, were the military

an armies of England, till the hand of Provis

that freedom which the bravery of her sons so well deserved.

Searce had the reins of power fallen from the dying hand of the old king into the powerless grasp of his weak son, Edward IL., when a change came over the destinies of England. Giving himself up to favorites, Edward iI. soon saw his barons throwing otf the subjection in which they had been

‘ld under the iron sway of his father. loreed to renew the late monarch’s at» tetapts on Scotland, the crushing defeat at

was to cope with the martial spirits of the North. To national defeat followed domestic trouble. The reign of Edward il. is one of the unhappiest in English his-~ During the twenty years he had the misfortune to rule, English misery and diss But

fearful close, there mounted the throne of England one of the ablest princes who ever

The reign of Edward III. is one of the longest and most glorious in ancient or modern history. He raised the English name from the depth to which it was fall-~ ing; he inaugurated a period of good gov-

abroad ; he made his court the most splen- did in the world; he fostered and encours aged that spirit of chivalry and romantic devotion to the fair sex, which tended so much to soften the rigor of an iron age lhese were all causes leading up to the

ing, but greater than any of these, was the long series of English successes, gained by Edward and the Black Prince, over the foreign foes of England. By the victories of Crecy, aud Poictiers, they established that military renown, which the laps of five centuries has not dimmed. Nor were their successes confined to France. At home Queen Philippa, at the battle of Neville’s Cross, amply avenged the day at Bannock-

| goodly fruit. , ture of the subsequent period the contro- | | versial stamp I have mentioned. Whatever |

burn. Two captive kings graced the monarch’s triumph, Then, for the first | time, was the march of an English armey | heard in Castile, and at Najara, the Black | Prince, against tremendous odds, proved | to the Spaniards the matchless superiority | of England. The number of his toes only

enhanced the brilliancy of his victory. By | exploits such as these, were Englishmen